is animal farm a fairy story

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Introduction

HOW FAR WOULD YOU AGREE THAT ''ANIMAL FARM'' IS, AS ORWELL HIMSELF DESCRIBED IT, A 'FAIRY STORY.' The first obvious question that is posed, is what exactly is a fairy story? A fairy story is a tale that is made up and is not real. They are mainly meant for children, however they used to be for adult ears only. I looked up 'fairy-tale' in the dictionary and it defined a fairy story as a tale about fairies or an incredible story. In the first part of this coursework, I will try and prove that Orwell's subtitle for his novel is true and can be proven from knowledge provided by the book. 'Animal Farm' is like a fairy story in the way that the animals can talk, and that the animals have human qualities and capabilities. The pigs are very clever and they use half-truths to change the views of the other animals that, as a result, make them believe in things that they didn't before. Squealer is a good example of this, who skilfully talks the animals into believing things that certainly are not true. It says in the book 'Squealer went on to give further graphic details of Boxer's deathbed. (P.83)' ...read more.

Middle

(P.8)' We can see that although Major is dead, he is there in spirit with them. Royal characters is also a main aspect of a fairy story, and this element is well and truly there in the text. At the beginning, Old Majors presence shows the reader that he is a royal and distinguishable animal amongst the animals. We see that he is quite an admirable character as well at the beginning of the book, when Mr Jones returns with his men to drive the animals out of control of the farm. It is the end of the 'war', as Snowball calls it, and Boxer's eyes 'Are filled with tears (p.28)' Because he had not intention of 'Taking life, not even human life (p.28).' This is quite admirable, that an animal will not even want to take human life, even though man is the enemy. Evil characters are not evident throughout the book, but we can see that the pigs misuse their intelligence and end up turning evil, decreeing that animals should be slaughtered. They even send Boxer to be slaughtered, for money that they will receive and use to their benefits. ...read more.

Conclusion

It is also a valid argument that slaughter of the innocent is a main element of this story, and does not usually occur in fairy stories. On page 56, we see that even a sheep who 'Confessed to having urinated in the drinking pool...was slain on the spot.' A fairy story usually portrays a wholesome message and has an optimistic ending. However, this book reveals evil becoming triumphant over the good, and the book also concludes with a pessimistic ending, leaving Orwell's description of his own book rather ironic. In order to be classified safely within the genre of the fairy story, the book would have to possess a morally optimistic conclusion, which is definitely missing from Animal Farm. Referring back to the original question, I can confidently answer that, on the one hand, George Orwell was correct in classifying his book as a fairy story, in the way that animals posses human qualities, but on the other hand, he was wrong. This is because we can see from the last few points of my analysis, that this novel can be placed within the genre of an allegory of the Russian Revolution, or it can even be placed within the genre of satire, which politically attacks communism, in the form of humour. Mikey Holder 18/12/2007 'Animal Farm' Coursework - 1 - ...read more.

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